Construction History (Maya)
Maya keeps a record of every operation
Also known as: Maya history · Maya delete history · Maya construction history · Maya history nodes · Maya Edit Delete by Type History
Definition
Construction history in Maya is the record of the operations applied to an object, such as extrudes, bevels and polygon reductions, stored as nodes in a chain. It lets you go back and change an earlier step, but it adds data to the scene, can slow Maya, and can cause strange results when an object is cleaned or exported. Delete History, in Edit > Delete by Type, removes the nodes and keeps the current shape.
In production
Leave history on while you are still adjusting an operation and delete it when the step is done, especially before UV work, rigging, baking, export and handing a model to someone else. Do not delete history on deformers such as skin clusters, or you will lose the rig. Keeping a scene clean of history makes it faster and more predictable.
